By Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun
Ecclesiastes 9:9
Life under this sun, is not always very fulfilling, but, at the end of a long day, you can go home to your wife, or wife, to your husband. At the end of a long year, you can escape with each other on a nice holiday.
Near the end of the Bible God says it again but in a different way:
Let marriage be held in honour among all
Hebrews 13:4
Boast of marriage, make sure everyone knows that you are married, and that being married is the best thing that ever happened to you. Let your bosses know that your spouse is better company after-hours than your colleagues. Let your parents know that your love for them is superseded now by a loyalty to each other. Let your children in the future know that one day they’ll need to leave so it can be just the two of you again.
This is something that you will need to remind yourself of frequently. Every trial in life is designed by God to bring you two closer – so don’t let earthly things create an Ice-Age between you. Every blessing in life is designed by God to be enjoyed together – so don’t get so consumed with “me-time” that you neglect “us-time”.
Marriage was designed by God to be the most permanent part of earthly life – make it work, make it work well.
There are many Divine principles that make marriage this honourable and joyful thing that God designed it to be. Marriage was designed by God to be for companionship—bring each other happiness. As we saw from Ecclesiastes 9:9, life under the sun is generally futile, so enjoy your spouse—your spouse is God’s little reward to you at the end of a difficult day.
Also, cultivate a convicting, yet encouraging companionship—God designed marriage to work best that way. Furthermore, God designed marriage to teach you to love more than you want to be loved, to serve more than you want to be served, to care more than you want to be cared for—to be a small earthly preview of what Jesus did on the cross for sinners like all of us, when He loved us more than we loved Him, when He gave His life for us more than we care to give our lives to Him, when He cared about our need for forgiven sins more than we cared about honouring Him.
We must hold ourselves accountable in our marriages. Accountable, not to our own standards, experiences and wisdom regarding marriage, but accountable to God’s design. Then marriage works wonderfully. Then marriage becomes the warehouse of happiness in this otherwise futile life.